I'm pretty sure they did, too. It's quite frustrating, but I keep telling myself that you can accomplish at least as much on film with filters and the like, so I shouldn't resent what other people did to their images. Bah.I ended up doing the screaming self portrait (titled "Megaera, a newer fury," because I liked the pun on the Furies and my name, and it gave the portrait something of a story), and the door from Eastern State Penitentiary (titled "no lock, no key," because I wanted to imply the prison thing, and emphasize the hinge/motion thing). I remain unsure that they're my strongest photos, but I think they're most unlike the other submissions in their categories, and they're really bold/graphic.

I don't resent the submitters, I just think that the rule is a bit arbitrary. I mean, sure, you don't want a lot of heavily manipulated images kicking around in the Abstract category, but you're not supposed to do things that are otherwise pretty standard image processing? Lame.

However mechanically infeasible, I am attracted to the romantic ideal of awarding the luck, occassion, and fortuitous nature of perfect shots. I love the idea that the worst of photographers might generate the most beautiful image, that a photographer who's completely technically crummy might win a contest, that there's some randomness and bias in the judging. By submitting manipulated images, they're not offending me as a competitor so much as me as a romantic. I worship the idea of hapenstance in photography, I guess.[More selfishing, though less to the point, and less influential to my opinion. I resent the manipulation clause because then when people do, as you point out, perfectly standard processing, I feel at a lack as someone who's horrid at reworking photos on computers (though I loved darkroom manipulation, when I had the option). I'd like to think my photos still stand a fair shot, you know?]

I have no darkroom experience, limited Photoshop skills, and a bare understanding of some of my camera's functions. I usually feel like a hack, and think I've managed better than I really should have so far.

I guess I end up seeing the restriction as problematic because it seems like it's artificial and forced. It effectively denies away half of the process for the sake of an ideal, and to me, that ideal has less to do with romanticism around the "perfect" shot so much as fetishism of the equipment. While I don't believe that a better rig will necessarily produce better pictures (there is a skill to this, after all...), I do think that it's easier to find sharp lines/color with a higher MP camera (for instance).